Music Player CategoryMP3 player or Digital Audio Player is a consumer electronics device that is capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, video, documents, etc. the data is typically stored on a hard drive, Microdrive, or flash memory. Music Players are growing at a rate of 42% yearly.
The prominent brands are Apple, Samsung, Sony, iRiver, Creative and Philips. With iPod launching new variants such as Nano and iTouch, one needs to fear this competition. Apple has been into this market globally since 2001 while rest have join later, at around mid 2004. But they are buckling themselves up as most of the companies want to cross the 30% mark in coming fiscal year 2012.Smartphone CategorySmartphones are mobile devices with evolved operating systems, that include Symbian Series 60, Android OS, iPhone OS, Blackberry OS, Linux among others.
Smartphones offer users PC-like functionality. These phones have ended the need to carry a separate PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) and a mobile phone. The sales of nearly 12 million smartphones expected in 2011 represents a near 100 per cent growth over sales of smartphones in 2010. The proportion of smartphones as a percentage of total mobile handset shipments in the India market is expected to grow from 3.
6% of 167 million total units in CY 2010 to 5.7% of an estimated 210 million units in CY 2011.Tablet CategoryTablets are larger than a mobile phone or personal digital assistant, integrated into a flat touch screen and primarily operated by touching the screen rather than using a physical keyboard. Tablet Market Size is estimated to be 200,000 units in 2011 which is expected to grow to 5,000,000 units in 2015. Inflection point is expected to be in 2013 when Tablets are expected to move from the early adopter to the mainstream market.
The market is expected to grow significantly once the 3G network are in place and well received.Company ProfileApple is the world’s most valuable company in this world. Apple designs, manufactures, and markets personal computers, portable digital music players and mobile communication devices. The company offers its products and services to customers in education, consumer, creative, professional, business and government sectors. It has 4 major products iPhone, ipad, iPod and mac out of which three products iPod, ipad, iPhone contribute 76% of the revenue of the apple in 2011. Apple is the fastest growing company.
Its revenue in 2011 is $108.5 billion which is almost doubled from $65 billion in 2010 and its earnings and its earnings jumps from $14 billion to 25 billion in 2011.Apple Inc. (Apple) has managed to create substantial value in the highly competitive personal computer industry, by innovating and forging a path considerably different from those of the largest competitors in the industry, successfully differentiating its products from those of the competition by choosing to focus on quality, design elegance, and superior customer service, while outsourcing actual manufacturing to trusted original equipment manufacturers. Yet, despite the advantages Apple has created for itself, the stiff competition within the industry and other external factors present formidable challenges to the firm. The firm’s history of category-defining products like the iPod and iPhone provide sufficient evidence that it is well-equipped to continue its path of innovation, by creating a digital lifestyle convergence device that bridges users’ on-the-go digital lives and their at-home digitals lives.
The proposed device will be powerful and feature packed, while leveraging the Apple system of seamless integration to create a compelling user experience, presented in an elegant package showcasing the firm’s industry-leading industrial design capabilities, to create the next must-have consumer electronics product.Resources Audit* Apple Stores-Retail Locations The introduction of Apple stores has provided the company with an important physicalpresence to act as both a sales location and an advertisement. The stores allow Apple to tightly control the image of the brand and provide excellent customer service. Apple tops many retailers in in-store sales, generating $4,032 per retail square foot per year, beating otherretailers like Tiffany & Co. at $2,666.This resource is of incrediblevalue to Apple and a success that is a relative rarity in the industry.
Matching success and impact like the Apple store model is difficult for other firms to achieve. Past experiments like Gateway stores have failed, while Sony Style stores founder in mediocrity. * Relationship with OEMsApple has outsourced all of its manufacturing processes to OEM partners in China, like Foxconn and Hon Hai Precision Industry while focusing on design internally. The relationshipsbetween Apple and their OEM partners are very close to provide Apple with excellent service and high quality products.* Industrial Design Capability Apple’s incredible industrial design capability is a function of their innovative design teams, led by Jonathan Ive, senior vice president of industrial design,and the firm’sprioritization of design and outsourced production. Ive and the Apple design team hold manyawards, with products being shown in permanent collections at various museums.
This combination is valuable to Apple, rare among competitors, and difficult to imitate. * Talented Software Development TeamsApple’s software developers are carefully selected and talented programmers. They’ve produced industry award winning software and the highly regarded iterations of Macintosh OSX operating system. They’ve provided Apple with important products, but developers of theircalibre are not rare within the industry, nor are they difficult to imitate. * Tailored Hardware/Software SystemsOne of Apple’s most important capabilities is their ability to develop and build highly integrative systems with software designed specifically for the hardware it runs on.
The ‘closedsystem’ style of Apple is unique in the industry which typically relies on third-party software(i.e. Microsoft Windows running on a Dell computer).. No other firm in the industry has a system like Apple’s and it would cost millions orbillions of dollars to imitate, not regarding success. While other systems work for PC manufacturers they cannot achieve the same results as Apple’s integrated system.
